The story
The airline was established on 12 October 1998 and started operations on 23 March 2000, with services from Amakusa to Fukuoka and Kumamoto. It is owned by the municipal government (80% stake) and Japan Airlines. On 1 October 2004, it began service between Kumamoto and Matsuyama. On 18 April 2006, it cumulatively carried over 50,000 passengers. On 1 September 2008, it stopped the service between Kumamoto and Matsuyama. Three days later, on 4 September, it began the service between Kumamoto and Kobe. On 31 March 2010, it stopped the service between Kumamoto and Kobe.
In 2015 the airline took delivery of their ATR 42-600 as the first Japanese airline. The airplane went into service on 20 February 2016 after retiring their De Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 on 19 February 2016.
From Wikipedia’s article on Amakusa Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3